Xie Shu had previously set his phone so that before unlocking it, he could see there were new messages, but not who sent them.
Worried about missing something important, he decided to take a quick look.
If it was another message from Su Qianyi, he could just pretend not to see it.
He set down the paintbrush in his hand, reached for his phone, and didn't forget to speak to Ruan Nianxi, "You keep going, don't wait for me."
"Mhm."
Ruan Nianxi dipped her brush into the palette to pick up a bit of color, carefully applying it to the canvas as per the reference image, but her gaze kept drifting over to Xie Shu.
She was curious about who had messaged him.
Could it be Su Qianyi?
For some reason, she felt a bit nervous.
Xie Shu's attention was fully on his phone, so he didn't notice Ruan Nianxi watching him.
He unlocked his phone and entered WeChat, only to find that the message was from Teacher Li at the studio.
He clicked on it and saw that Teacher Li had sent him a payment followed by a voice message.
The payment was for his part-time work today, and the voice message…
Xie Shu tapped on the voice message and brought the phone to his ear to listen.
After a few seconds of silence, he remembered he had muted his phone to avoid disturbances.
He put the phone down, turned off the mute, and considering the studio was a bit noisy, he turned the volume up to the max.
Once the volume was up, he tapped on the voice message again and held the phone a bit higher.
Ruan Nianxi was right next to Xie Shu, so when a woman's voice came through the speaker, she could hear it clearly.
Teacher Li's voice message was quite ordinary, just a few words of thanks for Xie Shu's hard work, followed by the time for tomorrow's class, and a final note that it was okay for him to arrive a bit late since their place was far away.
These were simple words, but the listener was Ruan Nianxi, and her mind uncontrollably filled in a lot of details.
Before, her only adversary in her eyes was Su Qianyi.
But tonight, knowing that Xie Shu had completely given up on Su Qianyi, every other female became her enemy.
She listened intently, wanting to hear how Xie Shu would reply.
But Xie Shu didn't send a voice message; instead, he typed a text message.
It seemed that the other party also switched to text chat, and they chatted for a while.
From her distance, she couldn't see the content on his phone, but she could see their chat bubbles increasing.
Ruan Nianxi pursed her lips in secret dissatisfaction.
From the voice message, the person must be some supervisor where Xie Shu worked part-time, right?
A teacher? Why did she sound so familiar with Xie Shu?
Xie Shu was just being polite with Teacher Li, so their chat ended quickly. When he looked over at Ruan Nianxi, he noticed a hint of displeasure on her beautiful profile, her lips tightly pressed together.
Feeling Xie Shu's gaze, Ruan Nianxi turned to look at him.
Their eyes met, and her previously sullen expression vanished instantly, replaced by her usual gentle demeanor. She gave Xie Shu a faint smile as if the jealous person just now wasn't her.
Xie Shu nonchalantly pushed his phone aside, calmly stirred his brush in the water bucket, shook off the excess water, and then composedly picked up paint from the palette.
"That was just a teacher from my part-time job. She was sending me my pay, and I just exchanged a few polite words with her after receiving the money, nothing else," Xie Shu explained while carefully painting the model, speaking in a relaxed tone.
Although Ruan Nianxi was pleased to hear his explanation, she pretended to be indifferent, "You don't need to explain anything to me, we…"
Aren't a couple.
She didn't finish her sentence. Although it was true, she just didn't want to say it.
"Is that so? Then I won't mention it in the future."
"…"
Ruan Nianxi's charming face fell. If only she hadn't spoken out of turn just now…
Despite her regret, she said nothing more.
Xie Shu glanced at her several times, inwardly sighing: What a closed book!
When she was with Su Qianyi, any dissatisfaction would be clearly expressed on her face or spoken out loud, letting him know.
Why doesn't she say anything?
If he didn't know about their past life, he might think she truly didn't care.
Ruan Nianxi wasn't willing to admit it, and naturally, Xie Shu wouldn't embarrass her by exposing her feelings.
After a few seconds of silence, he smoothly changed the subject. He talked with Ruan Nianxi about his part-time work at the studio, letting her know about his life and proving his innocence.
It was only his first day at the job!
He only knew the teacher's surname, not her full name.
Of course, during their conversation, he conveniently omitted the very enthusiastic girls from the media class on the second floor.
Although he didn't elaborate, that didn't mean Ruan Nianxi wouldn't fill in the blanks herself.
She always knew Xie Shu was popular. Unlike her, he had many friends, and many girls liked him.
And now, he was even more handsome than before, his charm increased, surely attracting even more admirers.
The more Xie Shu "explained," the more discontent she felt in her heart.
It was hard enough to get rid of Su Qianyi; she couldn't let anyone else take him away. No one was allowed!
She needed to find a way to let others know that Xie Shu had her by his side!
This time, she couldn't give anyone a chance!
She had already waited six years, and waiting another six…
Was too long, unbearable!
But even if she couldn't wait, she couldn't impulsively clear out everyone around Xie Shu all at once.
If her parents found out…
She hadn't officially taken over the company yet and didn't have much power. Most of her actions and choices might still be controlled by them.
If they took her away from Xie Shu again, she didn't know how long it would take to come back.
These past years, she had endured, fearing being sent abroad and not seeing him, that's why she had been patient.
She had almost gotten used to not seeing him, accustomed to silently watching him from the shadows, but now that he was close to her again, the feelings she had suppressed for years burst forth anew.
She could have endured the darkness if she had never seen the light.
（Author's words: The female lead has a tendency to fantasize to varying degrees depending on the plot. She dislikes making friends because she doesn't trust others. Sometimes, even the good intentions of others can be misinterpreted by her as malice or a threat, leading to easy suspicion, some of which she can't control, so she imagines many potential love rivals. As long as everyone knows the male lead is special, that's enough. As for the male lead, he's a refined and humorous gentleman.）
Proofreader & Editor:Peter Pan